99 Fun Facts About Book of Proverbs

Which word completes Proverbs 1:7, 'The fear of the LORD is the beginning of ___'?

Knowledge is the word in the book's motto verse, which goes straight on to say that fools despise wisdom and instruction. The better-known 'beginning of wisdom' wording is Proverbs 9:10.

Proverbs 11:29 says he that troubleth his own house shall inherit what, the title of a play about the Scopes trial?

The wind is the troubler's inheritance, and in Inherit the Wind the prosecutor Brady hurls the verse at a preacher who is condemning the accused teacher from the pulpit.

How many pillars has Wisdom 'hewn out' in Proverbs 9, a number T. E. Lawrence borrowed for his book title?

Seven pillars hold up the house Wisdom builds at the start of Proverbs 9, before she sends her maidens out to invite the simple to her feast. T. E. Lawrence took Seven Pillars of Wisdom from the verse.

Which creature does Proverbs 6 tell the sluggard to 'go to' and consider, since she works with no overseer or ruler?

The ant 'provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest' with nobody in charge, which is why the sluggard is sent to study her ways.

A fair woman without discretion is likened in Proverbs 11 to a jewel of gold in which animal's snout?

A pig is the 'swine' of the King James wording, and its gold nose-ring stands for good looks wasted on a woman with no judgement. The same chapter promises that 'the liberal soul shall be made fat'.

1 Kings 4 credits Solomon with 3,000 proverbs and with 1,005 of what?

Songs numbered 'a thousand and five', and the passage adds that men came 'from all kings of the earth' to hear the king who could speak on everything from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop on the wall.

Who taught King Lemuel the 'prophecy' that opens Proverbs 31, warning him that wine is 'not for kings'?

His mother is the teacher named in the chapter's first verse, and her lesson moves from the dangers of women and wine to a command to 'open thy mouth for the dumb' and plead the cause of the poor.

'Who can find a virtuous woman?' asks Proverbs 31:10; her price is said to be 'far above' what?

Rubies are the benchmark, the same gem that Proverbs 3 and 8 rank below wisdom itself. The Hebrew 'eshet chayil' behind 'virtuous woman' is closer to 'woman of valour'.

To what does a fool return in Proverbs 26:11, as a dog returns to its vomit, a line 2 Peter quotes?

His folly is where the fool goes back, and 2 Peter 2:22 pairs the dog with 'the sow that was washed' returning to the mire, aimed at converts who slide back into old ways.

Which King James verb completes Proverbs 22:6: a child trained 'in the way he should go' will not ___ 'from it'?

Depart is the verb, and the verse is one of the most quoted in Christian parenting, read by some as a guarantee and by others as a rule of thumb. It sits among the 'proverbs of Solomon' collected in chapters 10 to 22.

What does 'a soft answer' turn away in Proverbs 15:1, whose second half says 'grievous words stir up anger'?

Wrath is turned away by the soft answer, and the chapter comes back to the point: 'A wrathful man stirreth up strife: but he that is slow to anger appeaseth strife'.

Which verb completes Proverbs 29:18, 'Where there is no vision, the people ___'?

Perish is the King James verb, though the Hebrew is closer to 'cast off restraint', and the verse ends 'but he that keepeth the law, happy is he'.

Proverbs 17:22 says a merry heart 'doeth good like' what, while 'a broken spirit drieth the bones'?

A medicine is the comparison, which is why 'laughter is the best medicine' gets pinned on the Bible even though no verse says it. The same chapter says a friend 'loveth at all times'.

'Hope deferred maketh the heart sick,' says Proverbs 13:12, 'but when the desire cometh, it is' what?

A tree of life is the tree Genesis puts out of reach when Adam is driven from Eden, and Proverbs brings it back as a figure for fulfilled desire and, in chapter 3, for wisdom itself.

In Proverbs 31:28 the virtuous woman's children 'arise up' and call her what, while her husband 'praiseth her'?

Blessed is the children's word, and the poem ends by letting her own works praise her 'in the gates'; this portrait is what the 'Proverbs 31 woman' of Christian womanhood books is built on.

Proverbs 3:5 tells readers to trust in the LORD 'with all thine heart' and 'lean not unto thine own' what?

Understanding is what the verse says not to lean on, and the next line promises that whoever acknowledges God 'in all thy ways' will have his paths directed. The pair is among the best-known lines in the book.

'The wicked flee when no man pursueth,' says Proverbs 28:1, 'but the righteous are bold as' which animal?

A lion is the righteous man's model, the animal Proverbs 30 later calls 'strongest among beasts' that 'turneth not away for any'. The slothful man, says chapter 26, claims there is one in the streets as an excuse to stay home.

Proverbs 22:1 says a good name is 'rather to be chosen' than what, and loving favour 'rather than silver and gold'?

Great riches lose to a good name in the verse that opens a chapter which also holds 'train up a child' and the warning to 'remove not the ancient landmark'.

Proverbs 27:1 says 'boast not thyself of' what, 'for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth'?

Tomorrow is off limits for boasting, and the very next verse keeps the theme of humility: 'Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips'.

Proverbs 16:32 ranks the slow to anger above the mighty, and 'he that ruleth his spirit' above him that taketh what?

A city is the conquest outranked by self-command, a verse that turns the usual praise of conquest on its head. Chapter 16 also says 'the lot is cast into the lap' but the outcome is the LORD's.

Proverbs 18:24 says there is a friend 'that sticketh closer than' whom, a line Christians often apply to Jesus?

A brother is the comparison, and the first half, 'a man that hath friends must shew himself friendly', is often quoted alone; chapter 17 adds that 'a brother is born for adversity'.

What holds 'the power' of death and life in Proverbs 18:21, where 'they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof'?

The tongue holds that power, and the book keeps circling back to speech: the same chapter says 'a fool's mouth is his destruction' and that a man's belly is filled by 'the fruit of his mouth'.

What 'exalteth a nation' in Proverbs 14:34, whose second half warns that 'sin is a reproach to any people'?

Righteousness is what lifts a nation, and the same chapter holds each person to the test too: 'he that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker'.

Which metal sharpens itself in Proverbs 27:17, the image for how a man 'sharpeneth the countenance of his friend'?

Iron sharpeneth iron, a line that has become shorthand for friends who challenge each other, and the same chapter also rates 'open rebuke' above 'secret love'.

Proverbs 31:30 says 'favour is deceitful' and what 'is vain', before praising 'a woman that feareth the LORD'?

Beauty is vain in the King James wording, 'fleeting' in the NIV, and the line is the moral of the whole 'virtuous woman' poem, placed just before its closing call to 'give her of the fruit of her hands'.

'Wine is a mocker,' says Proverbs 20:1, 'strong drink is' what, 'and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise'?

Raging is the King James adjective, 'a brawler' in modern versions, and chapter 23 finishes the warning: wine 'at the last biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder'.

Proverbs 31's virtuous woman 'considereth a field, and buyeth it', then plants what 'with the fruit of her hands'?

A vineyard is what she plants, one line in a portrait of a woman who trades in linen and girdles, rises 'while it is yet night' and keeps her candle burning after dark.

Whose 'words' fill Proverbs 30, the chapter confessing 'I am more brutish than any man' that is not Solomon's?

Agur son of Jakeh is the speaker, addressing Ithiel and Ucal, and he opens by admitting 'I neither learned wisdom', an unexpected start to a chapter in a book of wisdom.

Which 'way' does Proverbs 30 call too wonderful, after an eagle's, a serpent's and a ship's?

A man with a maid completes the list of four things the speaker says he 'know[s] not', and it is followed at once by the adulterous woman who 'wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness'.

Which creature 'taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings' palaces', among Proverbs 30's small but wise things?

The spider is the King James reading, where modern versions have a lizard; its companions in the list include the conies who build 'in the rocks' and the locusts who have no king, 'yet go they forth all of them by bands'.

Which creature 'hath two daughters, crying, Give, give', opening Proverbs 30's list of things never satisfied?

The leech, 'horseleach' in the King James spelling, is a picture of greed, and it opens a list of four things that never say 'It is enough': the grave, the barren womb, parched earth and fire.

Which king of Judah's men 'copied out' the Solomon proverbs of chapters 25 to 29, per the heading of Proverbs 25?

Hezekiah's scribes are the only editors the book names, and their collection includes the advice to eat honey only 'so much as is sufficient' and 'a word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver'.

Which ancient civilisation produced the Instruction of Amenemope, a text closely paralleled by Proverbs 22–24?

Egypt is where Amenemope's thirty chapters of advice were written, and since Adolf Erman's 1924 study most scholars hold that the Hebrew passage borrowed from the Egyptian text, not the other way round.

Where is it 'better to dwell' than 'with a brawling woman', a line Proverbs prints twice?

A corner of the housetop wins in Proverbs 21:9 and again, almost word for word, in 25:24; 21:19 offers the wilderness as the alternative to 'a contentious and an angry woman'.

Proverbs 26:14 likens the slothful man turning on his bed to what turning 'upon his hinges'?

A door on its hinges is the picture of the sluggard rolling over, one of a run of sloth jokes in which he also hides his hand in his bosom and finds it too much trouble 'to bring it again to his mouth'.

What 'shall come as one that travelleth' after 'a little sleep, a little slumber', warns Proverbs 6?

Poverty arrives like a traveller and want 'as an armed man', a warning the book repeats word for word in chapter 24 after a walk past a sluggard's field 'grown over with thorns'.

What ends Proverbs 6's list of things the LORD hates, coming right after 'a false witness that speaketh lies'?

Sowing discord among brethren is the last thing named in the list of what the LORD hates, so the troublemaker closes a roll that has already taken in a proud look and hands that shed innocent blood.

What does the Septuagint call Proverbs' personified Wisdom, a Greek name Constantinople's famous basilica bears?

Sophia is the Septuagint's word for Wisdom, and Christian theology took over the Old Testament figure as Holy Wisdom, Hagia Sophia, the dedication of Justinian's basilica consecrated in 537.

'Bread of deceit is sweet to a man,' says Proverbs 20:17, 'but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with' what?

Gravel is what the cheat ends up chewing, and the same chapter catches the haggler too: 'It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer: but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth'.

What colour clothes the virtuous woman's whole household in Proverbs 31, so she 'is not afraid of the snow'?

Scarlet is the household's colour, while the woman herself wears 'silk and purple', makes 'coverings of tapestry' and sells fine linen and girdles to the merchants.

What is 'the glory of God' in Proverbs 25:2, where 'the honour of kings is to search out a matter'?

To conceal a thing is God's glory, in a pairing that makes royal inquiry the mirror of divine secrecy; the next verse adds that 'the heart of kings is unsearchable'.

Proverbs 25 says feeding a hungry enemy will 'heap' what upon his head, a line Paul quotes in Romans 12?

Coals of fire are the surprise outcome of kindness to an enemy, and Paul quotes the line in Romans 12 before adding his own summary: 'overcome evil with good'.

Proverbs 31's 'Eshet Chayil' is sung at the meal of which Jewish observance, between Shalom Aleichem and Kiddush?

Shabbat dinner on Friday night is when the poem is customarily sung at the table, a weekly tribute to the 'woman of valour' that sits between a hymn welcoming the angels and the blessing over wine.

Which dog breed does the Authorized Version put in Proverbs 30's list of things 'comely in going', beside a he-goat?

A greyhound is how the 1611 translators handled an obscure Hebrew phrase that the NIV turns into 'a strutting rooster'; the list ends with 'a king, against whom there is no rising up'.

Which heresy cited Proverbs 8:22, Wisdom's 'the LORD possessed me in the beginning', to call the Son a creature?

Arianism read the Greek Old Testament's 'the Lord created me' as proof that the Son was a creature; Athanasius replied that Wisdom spoke of the Word becoming man, and the creed of Nicaea called the Son 'begotten, not made'.

Proverbs 16:18 says 'Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before' what?

A fall follows the haughty spirit, while pride itself goes before destruction; the everyday saying 'pride comes before a fall' is a shortened splice of the verse's two halves.

Who wrote As a Man Thinketh, the self-help classic titled from Proverbs 23:7, 'as he thinketh in his heart'?

James Allen took his 1903 title from a verse that, in context, describes a grudging host: 'Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee'.

What does Proverbs 18:10 call 'the name of the LORD', a refuge that keeps the righteous safe?

A strong tower is the image, one the righteous 'runneth into', and the very next verse mocks the rich man whose wealth is 'as an high wall in his own conceit'.

'Better is a dinner of herbs where love is,' says Proverbs 15:17, than what 'and hatred therewith'?

A stalled ox, an animal fattened in its stall, is the feast that loses to vegetables eaten in peace; the verse before it prefers 'little with the fear of the LORD' to treasure 'and trouble therewith'.

Proverbs 16:18 says pride goeth before what, while 'an haughty spirit' goes before a fall?

Destruction is what pride comes before; the fall belongs to the 'haughty spirit' of the second line, so the everyday saying splices two halves of one verse.

Whoever finds what 'findeth a good thing' in Proverbs 18:22 and 'obtaineth favour of the LORD'?

A wife is the 'good thing' of Proverbs 18:22, and the next chapter adds that houses are inherited from fathers but a prudent one 'is from the LORD'.

A man's heart 'deviseth his way' in Proverbs 16:9, but what does the LORD direct?

His steps are the LORD's to direct, a thought Proverbs repeats in 19:21: a man's heart has 'many devices', yet 'the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand'.

Which animal 'robbed of her whelps' would Proverbs 17:12 rather a man meet than a fool at his worst?

A bear robbed of her cubs was a stock biblical image of fury: in 2 Samuel 17 the same phrase describes David and his warriors on the run.

Feeding a hungry foe heaps what 'upon his head' in Proverbs 25:22, a line Paul quotes in Romans 12?

Coals of fire are the surprising result of kindness to a foe, and Paul follows his quotation of the verse with the command to 'overcome evil with good'.

What does Proverbs 23:5 say wealth will certainly make for itself, in a warning against toiling for gain?

Wings are what money sprouts in Proverbs 23:5: it flies away 'as an eagle toward heaven' the moment a man fixes his gaze on it.

Who says 'It is naught, it is naught' in Proverbs 20:14, only to boast once 'he is gone his way'?

The buyer talks the goods down while he haggles, then brags about his bargain as soon as he has walked away with them.

What does even a fool do to be 'counted wise' in Proverbs 17:28, the last verse of its chapter?

Hold his peace is all it takes: the verse adds that 'he that shutteth his lips' is esteemed a man of sense, so silence alone can pass for wisdom.

Proverbs 16:24 likens pleasant words to what, 'sweet to the soul, and health to the bones'?

A honeycomb is the verse's picture of kind speech, though Proverbs 25 warns that anyone who finds honey and eats more than enough of it will vomit.

Which animal 'is prepared against the day of battle' in Proverbs 21:31, though the outcome 'is of the LORD'?

The horse was the war machine of the age, yet the verse hands the result to God, and Deuteronomy told Israel's kings not to 'multiply horses'.

What keeps the sluggard from plowing in Proverbs 20:4, so that he must 'beg in harvest, and have nothing'?

The cold is the sluggard's excuse here, and two chapters on he finds a wilder one, claiming he will be 'slain in the streets' if he goes outside.

Proverbs 20:5 says counsel in the heart of man is like what, which a perceptive man 'will draw' out?

Deep water is the image, and Proverbs 18:4 uses it again for 'the words of a man's mouth', setting them beside wisdom as 'a flowing brook'.

By what is 'even a child' known in Proverbs 20:11, in the chapter that opens 'Wine is a mocker'?

His doings give him away, 'whether his work be pure, and whether it be right': character shows in conduct long before a child is grown.

Proverbs 20:27 calls the spirit of man what 'of the LORD', one 'searching all the inward parts'?

The candle of the LORD lights a person up from within, and Proverbs 24:20 reverses the image: 'the candle of the wicked shall be put out'.

Proverbs 20:29 honours old men for the grey head; what does it call 'the glory of young men'?

Their strength is youth's glory, while age gets a richer prize elsewhere: Proverbs 16:31 calls the hoary head 'a crown of glory'.

What is it 'an honour for a man' to cease from in Proverbs 20:3, where 'every fool will be meddling'?

Strife is what the man of honour walks away from, and verse 22 of the same chapter goes further: never vow to repay evil, 'but wait on the LORD'.

After noting that most men proclaim their own goodness, Proverbs 20:6 asks who can find what kind of man?

A faithful man is the rarity, and the question has a twin at the end of the book, which asks who can find a virtuous woman.

What does a wise king bring over the wicked after scattering them in Proverbs 20:26, a threshing image?

The wheel is that of a threshing cart: modern versions say the king 'winnows' evildoers, sifting them out as a farmer parts chaff from grain.

Whose hand brings wealth in Proverbs 10:4, set against the 'slack hand' that leaves a man poor?

The diligent hand brings wealth, and Proverbs 12:24 promises it power as well: its owner will rule while the slothful end up 'under tribute'.

Proverbs 10:7 says the name of the wicked shall do what, unlike the cherished memory of the just?

Rot is the fate of a wicked reputation, while the verse's kinder half became a standard Jewish honorific, spoken after the names of the revered dead.

To those who send him, the sluggard of Proverbs 10:26 is like smoke and like what 'to the teeth'?

Vinegar sets the teeth on edge as smoke stings, and a lazy messenger irritates his employer the same way; Proverbs 25:13 likens a reliable one to snow at harvest time.

What is 'abomination to the LORD' in Proverbs 11:1, the opposite of what the verse calls 'his delight'?

A false balance means rigged scales, a fraud Proverbs condemns again in chapter 20, while 16:11 says every honest weight in the bag is the LORD's 'work'.

What does a man withhold in Proverbs 11:26 so that 'the people shall curse him', while the seller is praised?

Corn is the old English word for grain here: modern versions say the people curse 'the hoarder of grain' who sits on his stock instead of selling it.

Whose life does the upright man of Proverbs 12:10 care for, in a verse calling even the kindness of the wicked cruel?

His beast: the verse measures a person's character by how the animals that work for him are treated, not only by how he deals with people.

Whose border will the LORD 'establish' in Proverbs 15:25, even as he tears down the house of the proud?

The widow, among the most defenceless people in Old Testament Israel, has her property line guarded by God himself, while the proud lose the whole house.

What does the slothful man fail to do with 'that which he took in hunting' in Proverbs 12:27?

Roast it: the lazy hunter cannot be bothered to cook his own catch, one of the book's many jokes at the expense of the slothful.

Who 'believeth every word' in Proverbs 14:15, while the prudent man 'looketh well to his going'?

The simple are the gullible of the book's cast, easily led but still teachable: its opening lines promise to give them 'subtilty'.

What does Proverbs 14:30 say decays the bones, the opposite of the 'sound heart' that is 'the life of the flesh'?

Envy eats at the bones from the inside while a heart at rest gives the whole body life: Proverbs treats the emotions as a matter of physical health.

What does Proverbs 15:3 say 'are in every place, beholding the evil and the good'?

The eyes of the LORD miss nothing, and verse 11 pushes the point: even the realm of the dead lies open before him, so 'how much more' human hearts.

What does 'he that is of a merry heart' have in Proverbs 15:15, while the afflicted find every day evil?

A continual feast: the verse makes happiness a matter of outlook rather than circumstance, since the merry and the afflicted may sit at the very same table.

The way of the slothful man is like a hedge of what in Proverbs 15:19, while the upright walk a plain path?

Thorns block the lazy man at every turn, and Proverbs 24 shows them again, growing all over the neglected field of the slothful.

What comes 'before honour' in Proverbs 15:33, a half-line the book repeats word for word in chapter 18?

Humility comes first, and the opening half of Proverbs 15:33 names where it is learned: 'the fear of the LORD is the instruction of wisdom'.

Proverbs 16:7 says that when a man's ways please the LORD, even who will be reconciled to him?

His enemies end up on good terms with him, and the verse gives God the credit for the truce rather than the man's own diplomacy.

Who 'separateth chief friends' in Proverbs 16:28, a verse that opens with the mischief of 'a froward man'?

A whisperer splits even the closest friends with quiet gossip, and Proverbs 17:9 agrees: whoever keeps repeating a matter 'separateth very friends'.

What 'is cast into the lap' in Proverbs 16:33, though 'the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD'?

The lot was a customary way to settle a matter by chance, and Proverbs 18:18 commends it for ending disputes 'between the mighty'.

When does a friend love in Proverbs 17:17, a verse that goes on to speak of kin 'born for adversity'?

At all times, fair weather or foul; Proverbs 19:4 describes the other sort, observing that 'wealth maketh many friends' while the poor man is deserted.

Where does the slothful man hide his hand in Proverbs 19:24, too lazy to 'bring it to his mouth again'?

In his bosom is the old wording; newer versions read 'in the dish', picturing a man too idle to lift his own food, and Proverbs 26:15 repeats the joke.

Doing 'justice and judgment' is 'more acceptable to the LORD' than what in Proverbs 21:3?

Sacrifice ranks below right conduct here, an echo of the prophet Samuel's rebuke to King Saul: 'to obey is better than sacrifice'.

What does Proverbs 22:28 forbid anyone to remove, something 'which thy fathers have set'?

The ancient landmark was a boundary stone marking a family's land, and moving one was theft; Proverbs 23:10 repeats the ban to protect the fields of the fatherless.

What is the Hebrew name of the Book of Proverbs, taken from the first words of its opening verse?

Mishlei means 'proverbs of', the first word of the heading 'Mishlei Shlomo', a title that returns at chapters 10 and 25.

Proverbs belongs to which third division of the Hebrew Bible, known in English as the Writings?

Ketuvim also contains Psalms and Job, and old Hebrew manuscripts set those three poetic books out in a special two-column layout that shows off their parallel lines.

At which high place did Solomon, credited with most of Proverbs, ask God in a dream for a discerning heart?

Gibeon was where Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings; pleased that he had not asked for long life or wealth, God gave him wealth and honour too.

Which 17th-century satirical poem uses the saying 'spare the rod and spoil the child', wording Proverbs 13:24 never has?

Hudibras, Samuel Butler's satire about a Cromwellian knight, uses the saying, which a 1639 schoolbook of proverbs had already printed; the biblical verse speaks of sparing the rod but never of spoiling.

Proverbs 27:22 says that even braying a fool 'among wheat' in what vessel will not cure him?

A mortar and pestle pound grain to powder, yet the verse says even that treatment would leave a fool's foolishness stuck fast to him.

Proverbs 23:32 says wine at the last 'biteth like a serpent' and stingeth like which creature?

An adder, a venomous snake, is the sting in the book's longest warning against drink, which opens by asking who has woe, sorrow and 'wounds without cause'.

Proverbs 23:2 tells a man 'given to appetite' at a ruler's table to put what to his throat?

A knife to the throat is the book's vivid way of saying curb your appetite: the next verse warns that a ruler's dainties are 'deceitful meat'.

Which visiting monarch tested Solomon 'with hard questions', drawn by the fame of the king credited with Proverbs?

The Queen of Sheba came with camels carrying spices, gold and precious stones, and admitted afterwards that 'the half was not told me'.

Which Old Testament book that calls everything 'vanity' does tradition ascribe to Solomon, like Proverbs?

Ecclesiastes was written by Solomon in his old age, says rabbinic tradition, and it reads like a rebuttal: it doubts the tidy rewards that Proverbs promises the wise.

A word fitly spoken is like which golden fruit 'in pictures of silver' in Proverbs 25:11?

Apples of gold set in silver picture the apt remark, and the verse stands near the head of the proverbs that a later king's scribes 'copied out'.

What does Proverbs 23:23 say to buy 'and sell it not', along with wisdom and instruction?

The truth is the one purchase never to be resold, advice set inside a parent's speech that pleads, 'hearken unto thy father that begat thee'.